Somebody gets hurt — at work, in a crash, or from an illness that has nothing to do with the job. They do everything right. They treat, they recover as far as they're going to, and their doctor writes a return-to-work note: no lifting over a set weight. No overhead work. Sit-stand as needed. No ladders.
They bring that note in, relieved to be going back. And they hear some version of: "We don't have anything for you."
Sometimes that's the honest truth about a job that can't be done any other way. Sometimes it's an employer that never seriously looked. The difference matters, because in the second case what's happening may not just be unfair — it may be unlawful.
Accommodation isn't a favor
Disability discrimination law generally requires covered employers to work with a qualified employee who has a disability to find a reasonable accommodation — a change to how, when, or where the job gets done that lets the person perform its essential functions — unless that would impose an undue hardship on the business.
Notice what that framework does not say. It doesn't say you have to be 100% healed. It doesn't say the employer picks the outcome unilaterally. And it doesn't make "we only take people back at full duty" a defense — blanket full-duty rules are exactly the kind of practice that gets employers in trouble, because they skip the individual look the law contemplates.
Whether a particular employer is covered, and which law applies, depends on the situation — worth getting answered for your case rather than assuming.
The "interactive process" is the part people miss
The law contemplates a conversation: you identify the limitation, the employer explores what's possible, both sides trade information, and you land somewhere. The accommodations that come out of it are often unglamorous and cheap — a lifting aid, a stool, a modified schedule, shifting one marginal task to a coworker, a vacant position the person can do.
What should raise your eyebrows is no conversation at all. A flat "no" in thirty seconds, with no discussion of the job's actual tasks and no request for more information from your doctor, is worth documenting carefully.
Three practical things:
- Put the request in writing and keep a copy. "Here are my restrictions; what can we do?" is enough — you don't have to use legal phrases like "reasonable accommodation."
- Save the paperwork. Restriction notes, emails, texts, schedules, write-ups, and anything that shows how similar employees were treated.
- Watch the timing. If the discipline, the schedule cuts, or the termination started right after you handed in the note, that sequence matters.
Where this overlaps — and where it doesn't
If your injury was a work injury, you may be on several tracks at once. Your workers' comp claim is one thing; a light-duty offer that isn't a real job is another; being punished for filing a claim at all is a separate problem I covered in retaliation after a workers' comp claim. Being pushed out after raising a concern has its own protections — see my post on reporting a safety hazard.
These claims have deadlines, some of them short, depending on which agency and which law is involved. That alone is reason not to sit on it for months deciding whether it's "worth making a fuss."
Talk to someone before you sign or resign
Two moves I'd ask you not to make alone: signing a severance or release, and quitting because the situation has become intolerable. Both can affect what claims you still have.
When someone brings me an employment problem, I want the documents, the timeline, and the names — then a straight answer about whether there's a case, including when there isn't. That directness, and a willingness to fight when the facts support it, is what my clients describe in the five-star reviews they've left. My firm was voted Best of Omaha in 2025 and 2026, and I've recovered more than $23 million for clients across my practice, with a $5.4 million top result.
If your employer refused to work with your restrictions, cut your hours, or let you go after you came back injured, call me at (402) 378-9208 or reach out here for a consultation — the sooner the better, while deadlines are still open.
Your Attorney
Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
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